Your official source for new Irish books each month
First Flush is the number one resource for new Irish book releases. See which books will be on the shelves each month—search by genre, keyword, author or title—or just browse through the archives.
Alongside the official Irish Bestseller Charts, all data is supplied by Nielsen Book.
Patrick: From Patron Saint to Modern Influencer
St Patrick is one of the most famous saints of all time. Thousands of people with no direct Irish connection celebrate St Patrick’s Day, parading along the streets of New York, Boston, Chicago, San Antonio, Texas and Sydney, where St Patrick’s Day is a national holiday. These celebrations are the latest version of the cult of St Patrick, which has persisted in different forms since his death on 17 March, 462AD. But who was St Patrick, and how much of what we know about him is fact, how much legend? This book looks at the historical man and the evidence of his writings, the myths and the apocryphal stories, and describes the social changes that led in the 18th century to his emergence as a symbol of Irish nationalism. Patrick: From Patron Saint to Modern Influencer is a fascinating and lively portrait of the man who converted pagan Ireland to Christianity – a fresh, sometimes startling examination of the folklore and traditons that have developed around the saint through the ages. First published in 1989 in the UK and USA, this fully updated edition features new photographs and illustrations and will be an indispensable companion for anyone seeking to understand the role of St Patrick in forging modern Irish identity.
Alannah Hopkin
Published: March /
2023
New Island Books
9781848408883
312 Pages
€24.95
£21.99
Paperback
Ireland
Biography: religious & spiritual
Nothing Special
New York City, 1966. Seventeen-year-old Mae lives in a run-down apartment with her alcoholic mother and her mother's sometimes-boyfriend, Mikey. She is turned off by the petty girls at her high school, and the sleazy men she typically meets. When she drops out, she is presented with a job offer that will remake her world entirely: she is hired as a typist for the artist Andy Warhol. Warhol is composing an unconventional novel by recording the conversations and experiences of his many famous and alluring friends. Tasked with transcribing these tapes alongside several other girls, Mae quickly befriends Shelley and the two of them embark on a surreal adventure at the fringes of the countercultural movement. Going to parties together, exploring their womanhood and sexuality, this should be the most enlivening experience of Mae's life. But as she grows increasingly obsessed with the tapes and numb to her own reality, Mae must grapple with the thin line between art and voyeurism and determine how she can remain her own person as the tide of the sixties sweeps over her. Nothing Special is a whip-smart coming-of-age story about friendship, independence and the construction of art and identity, bringing to life the experience of young women in this iconic and turbulent moment.
Nicole Flattery
Published: March /
2023
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
9781526612120
240 Pages
£16.99
Hardback
United Kingdom
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Milk: On Motherhood and Madness
From a brilliant new talent, Milk is an astonishingly evocative, intimate and moving memoir charting one woman's experience of pregnancy and motherhood in modern Ireland.
Alice Kinsella
Published: March /
2023
Picador
9781529097948
368 Pages
£14.99
Hardback
United Kingdom
Memoirs
Ireland at the Crossroads: Lisdoonvarna, Direct Provision and the Far Right
Nobody predicted that the community of Lisdoonvarna had extreme right-wing connections, but it provided a template for how legitimate community concerns can be weaponised by far-right activists. However, the local community did fight back against these tactics. In Ireland at the Intersection, local community activist Theresa O’Donohoe explores
Theresa O'Donohoe
Published: March /
2023
Orpen Press
9781786051301
170 Pages
€15.00
£14.00
Paperback
Ireland
Political activism
Duffy and Son
The Sunday Business Post Fiction Book of the Year | Shortlisted for Popular Fiction Book of the Year – An Post Irish Book Awards A heart-warming and hilarious novel about life, love, and the weight of all we leave unsaid, Duffy & Son is a quietly moving masterpiece from one of Ireland's most gifted comic writers.
Damien Owens
Published: March /
2023
HarperCollinsIreland
9780008473105
304 Pages
£9.99
Paperback
Ireland
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Corvus and Crater
Corvus and Crater, Erin Coughlin Hollowell’s third full-length poetry collection is published by Salmon Poetry. Each poem in Corvus and Crater is a lens, a tractate, the short alphabet of light, a meditation. Begun from a limitation—54 poems with 54 syllables to commemorate a birthday of the same number—these poems move with raptor focus through the Alaskan landscape. The weather erases, offering a space for the writer—into and away from home, into rituals and remembering, in an attempt to locate. Through brush and into frozen air, Hollowell maps footsteps, water shifts, rivering constellations, and tree limb visitors. These pared down poems are deeply felt. Their vigil will stay on you “Like a blunt print / of a careless god’s thumb.”
Erin Hollowell
Published: March /
2023
Salmon Poetry
9781915022318
€12.00
£11.00
Paperback
Ireland
Poetry by individual poets
Any Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Prostitution in Ireland
A radically honest account of surviving sexual exploitation in the Irish sex trade, in a psychotherapist's literary debut of past trauma and the integration of lives past and present.
Mia Doering
Published: March /
2023
Hachette Books Ireland
9781529371833
320 Pages
£9.99
Paperback
Ireland
Memoirs
And a Bang on the Ear: Reclaiming My Life After a Brain Injury
Part investigative tale, part time capsule, And a Bang on the Ear sees Philip painstakingly piece together the events that led up to, and followed, the accidental clash of heads that left him in a coma before waking up to 30 years of pain and paralysis. Full of hope and humour, rage and rehabilitation, this is an autobiography unlike any other.
Phil Quinlan; Steve O'Rourke; Paul Howard
Published: March /
2023
O'Brien Press Ltd
9781788493222
208 Pages
€17.99
£16.99
Paperback
Ireland
Autobiography: general
American Bombshell: A 1940's coming-of-age story, inspired by true events: 2023
A 1940’s coming of age story of seventeen-year-old Rosie Haskell, a working-class girl who, despite a rocky start in life, begins a journey of self-discovery, love and loss in the bombed north-of-England in the fifth year of world war two. Though intelligent, Rosie is naïve. She seeks acceptance & love in an adult world, but it is not as she imagined. She begins her first job at a radio factory. At a dance she meets Eugene, a glamorous Irish American pilot, a dash of Hollywood in a drab English town. Despite his outward appearance, Eugene is falling apart due to the horror of flying his B17 bomber over Germany. Secretly he keeps himself going through a cocktail of sex, drink, and illegal drugs. Restrained by the rules of society, Rosie tiptoes around physical intimacy with Eugene. Things become more complicated when Hazel, a tough motorcycle-riding Yorkshire woman, enters the picture. Rosie loses her home, and caught at a vulnerable moment, is seduced by Hazel in what is Rosie’s first sexual experience. In the summer of 1944, as D-Day and the invasion of Europe draw closer, a three-way relationship evolves between Rosie, Hazel and Eugene in which, despite pressure from both suitors, Rosie tries to make sense of her own feelings and steer her own course. The war intervenes dramatically when a German flying bomb nearly kills them all. The proximity of death impels a choice that will change her life forever.
David King
Published: March /
2023
Poolbeg Press Ltd
9781781997086
€16.99
£13.99
Paperback
Ireland
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
After the Roof Caved In: An Immigrant's Journey from Ireland to America
The moving story of an Irish immigrant's life, from a poverty-stricken childhood in Ireland to becoming a captain of industry.
Michael J. Dowling; Charles Kenney
Published: March /
2023
Arcade Publishing
9781950994649
288 Pages
£11.99
Paperback
United States
Memoirs
Notes for readers and publishers
First published in 1976, First Flush is a monthly listing of new Irish books. For inclusion in First Flush the title must meet one of the following requirements: Irish publisher, Irish author and/or an Irish subject.
- The information listed is true and complete to the best of our knowledge at time of publication.
- We are happy to be contacted regarding updates or corrections to book details, though all information listed will ultimately be at the discretion of the editor.
- Books Ireland disclaim any liability in connection with use of this information.
- All prices are listed in euro when available.
- We are not always able to acknowledge every press release or every book that is submitted due to a high volume, but we are grateful for each one and will be in touch if we’d like to review or feature a title or author.